Recently I was with a group of people and a conversation came up about maintaining ones health and one person was saying how he can’t eat too much of a particular item otherwise he will gain weight. Now she seemed like she did a lot of physical activities too and so you would think one wouldn’t have an issue with things like that. Afterwards I realized that she was into things such as smoking and drinking alcohol. So in my mind I thought that kind of explained some points about the weight issue.

At the same time, she was also talking about finances and how she tries so much yet it seems like it is such a challenge to stay balanced at the end of the month. I was just thinking about her habits though such as those cigarettes and how that is probably one huge monthly expense alone. I’m almost inclined to say that it would be close to a monthly gas bill for people who drive a car.

I personally dislike some styles of budgeting where people create charts outlining if you do two things good to save money then that means you can do two things that are bad in terms of spending it. Hence, you are always just breaking even. Is that really a good way to manage your finances though? Would that make sense in say a business where the strategy is if you get one happy customer then that gives you one customer to make angry?

In many ways I think focusing on your habits is more effective than just creating budgets in general. Cause with that you are focused on living a particular lifestyle which is the key to producing results personally and financially.

So with that crazy incident that happened at the mall yesterday one topic that I heard a lot of people rumble about was how it was so inconvenient if you were taking public transportation yesterday and that it would have been so much better to just drive there. That then brought up the topic of the amount of money you spend buying a transit ticket to get to your destination vs gas for your car.

For the car advocate they were using an example on how it costs about $2.50 a ticket one way and so you burn about $5 going to say the mall for a day. Compare that to $5 worth of gas where you can probably go back and fourth to the mall about 10 to 20 times with $5 worth of gas. For the public transportation advocate they mentioned how you have to factor in all of the other expenses associated with having a car such as the monthly insurance rates where in the end taking public transportation is cheaper.

I was thinking with those examples and it seems like technically the cheapest middle of the road way to go based on all of those factors is to simply participate in something like a carpool or vehicle sharing program. Of course, unlike things like a house or apartment I’m sure sharing a vehicle is not as straight forward. But imagine if four people normally spent about $100 a month in transportation usually for the sole purpose of traveling to work.

Assuming the insurance is about $100 a month with gas being say $150, that means everyone could potentially save about $37.50 a month or more. Of course, there are always the non vehicle options such as walking or riding a bike which can work just as well depending on your travel distances.

I know here in BC there are a lot of rideshare type of programs available too. I think this is really dependent on where you live and the options you have available. Example, I know many that just take the rapid transit to work at the core of downtown as it is a nightmare to find parking that can also cost you a lot of money in parking alone.

Mixing and matching doesn’t hurt too I’d say. Example, if one day you are traveling to a fireworks show that would be a 20km ride one way and a rapid transit option is available then it may be wiser to use that option. If you find yourself having to travel smaller distances frequently and need the convenience to get from point A to point B then a car would make more sense financially. Sharing one with someone else could make more sense too.

Off topic, but this was a surprising day as in the metrotown mall there was this guy that looked like he was threatening to jump off the walkway area that connected the skytrain to the main mall. Right below him was the bus loop too and as a result all of the public transportation was closed down as well. Guy looked like he was in his late 30’s to 40’s or so as you can see here:

And for all you that want to see an actual video of the incident I took a quick video capture of it too:

I didn’t stick around to watch the whole ordeal. In general, you can see the guy constantly looking down and the security that was watching him. The interesting thing was apparently not too far away there was some other arrests that cause a commotion too. Makes you wonder if this was related in anyway. I guess this kind of ruined some people’s shopping plans for the weekend.

I was talking to a lady recently and in terms of assets and net worth you can pretty much say that money is not an issue as she has well over a million dollars. Interestingly enough, she actually worked at some jobs for fun to try and enjoy the simple things in life that pay along the lines of a minimum wage salary. While a lot of people would do it as an income source, this is like a way for her to socialize and interact with everyday people.

Was kind of sad too as even she was telling me how it was so hard to trust anyone when you have that kind of money as everyone just wants to take it from you. However, she mentioned that doing things like this allows her to meet more genuine people. I’m actually not too shocked at all though as I know many people who do something along those lines.

Doing any kind of work that would be considered the bottom of the barrel in terms of a social hierarchy really does help you to become more grounded as to not become say a snob where you would easily allow money to corrupt you too. You really do have to be careful still though as people can change instantly too once money comes into play.

Not too long ago my brother bought a new vehicle to adapt to his growing family and as a result his old vehicle has been sitting in the garage and is being kept as a just in case type of vehicle. Interesting thing is the thing seems to be a pain to maintain which costs money still as if you don’t use the vehicle then things like the battery tend to die faster.

Vehicles usually are a money drainer and it’s jut kind of humorous I thought where even if you don’t use it in this case it still costs money. He did consider just selling it before since it is all paid off. I think that is a big reason why a lot of people would want to keep it too since you worked hard to purchase something like this and so it feels like you are just throwing away all that effort that you put into it in some respects.

I suppose in the other light it probably is cheaper and safer than trying to buy a used vehicle if you do for whatever reason needed another one.